This residency was funded by grant money from the United Arts Council of Wake County and the Weatherstone PTA. I would like to thank Weatherstone Elementary School PTA for bringing me to work with the third grade students and teachers.
Thank you to teachers for allowing me to work with your Language Arts classes. There were many poems born this week and students walked away inspired from each other and most importantly, themselves. That is a beautiful thing. Below is a video highlighting the week from start to finish and throughout this post are videos highlighting each day of the residency. Stay tuned until the end as there are videos of individual poets reading their work.
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Students were introduced to poetic devices (alliteration, metaphor, simile, personification, and onomatopoeia) and created their own examples. Students also started sharing their work aloud, preparing them for reading their poetry aloud in preparation for the Open Mic at the end of the week.
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Students spend the majority of class time writing poems and polishing poems they started developing earlier in the week. Students used a bicycle graphic organizer to organize and synthesize their thoughts and ideas. For some students, the graphic organizer helps visually understand the complex nature of poetry and how many different elements create a well-crafted poem. Ultimately though, we decided that the poet is what brings a poem to life and the passion for a subject to write about.
This was a condensed residency (from five days to four) so we had our open mic on Day 4. Students read their work aloud in front of an audience, which included Weatherstone Elem. principal, Mr. Chadwick. The students did a great job. For students that were too shy to read in front of an audience, we recorded them reading their poem on the app, ChatterKid. Students had a fun time creating and sharing these poems. Some students even took the initiative to type up their poems and give them to me. I am hoping we can create a digital anthology for the entire third grade. Such marvelous poets! It was an honor to work with these talented young authors. Highlight videos from the open mic and ChatterKid are below.
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